Sunday, September 23, 2007

Reply to All Yesterday's Comments

Ok, Anonymous...I see you went through my website, and I must tell you that I forgot about Pinky, mostly because the thought of the real Pinky, who just disappeared, still hurts.

I think the ideas are great, and Pinky deserves a new name, but I think Xaran is too big for him, so how about Pataran, and leaving out the x? Might also sound like pawsteps...patar, patar, pataran...

We Jump or Jump Big! Is an excellent tag line for Pinky-Pataran. And "More" is very true for all cats. I don't know that I gave either Fairyfoot or Myx in Heart Dance a tag line, and I haven't reread it...

We jump big! Could be seen as a philosophically smart tag line, they did rise in station, from the gang to the orphanage, to Mitchella's, then to a GreatHouse...We Climb High is a good line too.

I have recently re-read HeartMate (I usually work so hard on the books that I don't reread them again), and Danith was the only one who had a pink aura, so the pink aura is out.

And you all should have figured out that Antenn will be an architect. I'm setting up his HeartMate in Heart Fate, or rather introducing/mentioning her Family.

A ten or twenty year "hop" may be coming...if the series reaches that long. I haven't decided how I'm going to handle the generational "hop." Years will have to pass, but luckily everyone on Celta is amazingly long-lived, so the current generation will be in the prime, but the oldest of the old (I'm thinking Tab Holly here, which, as he is Tinne's mentor, has shown up in Heart Fate) will have passed on to the Wheel of Stars.

Laeve Hawthorn, the oldest and coming up on 17, may be the first, just to stay with the current generation. I have no real plot about him, he has no secrets, but he has experienced what it is like to nearly kill a HeartMate. I see him as a very honorable young man, the best of the Hawthorns and a Grove, also, I believe.

So upcoming books: Heart Fate (sold), Tinne and Lahsin (and, no, I'm not going to tell you how I'm going to work that, and I won't be answering questions/guesses).

Then the next two are up for contract and since my editor made encouraging murmurings when I met with her at RWA in July:

Heart Change, Cratag Maytree and D'Marigold. Oddly enough I've had Marigold's story in my head for a long, long time, since before I was published. Her story ties into T'Ash and Danith's...

Another Heart Book, title unknown, protagonist is an older female explorer who will return to Druida to claim her HeartMate, a younger man, an actor. These people are already mentioned in Heart Fate, and I just know a little about them.

The up and coming youngsters:Laev HawthornAntenn BlackthornVinni T'Vine and Avellana Hazel

Though that's their age order, I see Antenn's story as being last.

Then there are the children...Rulea Eve ElderNuin AshDani AshTwo more Ash ChildrenTwo Holm Holly ChildrenVinni's daughter and Saille Willow's Son (I sort of remember saying something about this in Heart Dance)And no, I don't know that there will be any Ash/Elder marriages or Holly/Elder marriages. I hardly know these children, and the series might not last that long.

I do have ideas for novellas: 1) Heart and Soul, a prequel set on Nuada's Sword when it discovers Celta. Mutiny...Despair...Discovery...this already is plotted 2) Claif Clover stumbling around in the Southern Continent looking for good wood for the family furniture company 3) an erotic novella if I ever want to go in that direction...

Catheryne, I don't put my ARCs up for sale. Occasionally I donate them to contests. Heart Fate won't be done for a couple of months, and right now I don't know what shape Keepers of the Flame is in. I may never want to see Keepers of the Flame again, let alone make the changes from all the edits to match the final on the computer to the published copy. Keepers of the Flame will have at least three cut scenes going up, only one of them is more fun than interesting...I was really sad to cut the scene with Koz...

Now, I've spent a lot of time on this, and I'll save it for myself in my Celta file, where I keep all my notes. However, when the time comes to write the next generation, I will probably copy all the scenes I have concerning the individual into a file and reread them and Pinky will get the glory he deserves.

Thank you all for your interest in my books. May you enjoy whatever you are reading today.Robin

5 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank-you so much for your generous response to the "buzz" that got going! As one of your many fans, I really appreciate that you took time out of an already very busy writing schedule to do that for us. May YOU have a very blessed and productive day!! Catheryne

Anon, I've never spoken of the loss of any of the cats in the Heart books, so you wouldn't know. But Pinky wasn't mine, spent some time with me, and then disappeared. So that was harder than most. I can still see him lounging on my grandmother's cedar chest in front of my bedroom window...somewhere I have a picture of him, but I think only 1.

I know you probably haven't thought much about the children that are just being born to your heros and heroines (or maybe you already know what you want to do with some of them?), but I think it would be interesting for Holm and Lark to have a daughter interesting in fighting. Probably not the really aggressive fighting, maybe a more defensive form (Lark's influence). Anyway, just a thought and love your books!